Among the forms of family tax credit programs which are provided to citizens under United States tax law, individuals who have adopted a child may be able to claim a financial exemption from their obligations to the government. The finding that a newly legally established parent is eligible for an adoption tax credit means that the liability held by that person for paying tax will be considered to have been reduced by the IRS.
The amount of financial relief which can be secured through this kind of family tax credit will at most total $10,960. In administering the family tax credit, the IRS makes such recognition of the fact that the process of adopting a child will often and perhaps unavoidably demand more than a year, but it does not provide for specific claims of adoption tax credit made for individual years in which the overall process of adoption was taking place.
This kind of family tax credit is instead granted by the IRS and administered toward the applicable individual’s taxes in reference to the child adopted, rather than the length of time devoting to securing the adoption.
The adoption tax credit can be applied to both adoptions performed inside of the United States and those which involve children outside of the country, but in differing ways. This family tax credit can be claimed for an adoption intended to take place entirely within the United States even if it does not result in the child being adopted.
If a United States resident adopts a child from outside of the country, however, the adoption tax credit can only be applied for after the adoption itself has been successfully completed. In considering the bounds under which adoption can be considered to have occurred for the purposes of granting a family tax credit, an instance in which the child of a spouse is adopted will not be considered adoption, in that such a procedure only proceeds from the larger context of a new marriage and is not in itself specifically aimed at securing the welfare of a child.
Children whose adoption can be covered under a family tax credit may be found to qualify for their new parent receiving a financial exemption in terms of their age. This qualification can refer to either the actual age of the child, which must be under eighteen years, or the ability of said child to care for him or herself, which if significantly impacted by a physical or mental disability might be legally considered to fall under the age of eighteen.
The costs considered by the adoption tax credit include many of the varied fees which can normally be expected through the involved and complex process of legally adopting a child in the United States. For instance, paying the fees of a legal representatives, paying costs imposed by court procedures, and paying for travel to the current home of the child may all be considered valid expenses to be offset through the granting of an adoption tax credit.
